ShippingEasy wants to liberate sellers from their shipping stations, announcing today an integration with Amazon’s Alexa voice technology. It’s the first cloud-based shipping platform to use “conversational user interface.”
In addition to shipping and fulfillment related commands such as asking Alexa for rates and telling it to print labels and packing slips, sellers can ask questions such as, “How many orders do I have?” and “How many orders did I ship last week?”
It’s a leap for technologies like Alexa given that voice-enabled devices tend to be thought of as the domain of smartphones and devices for the home. Amazon made Alexa technology for its own devices like the Echo, but it can also be licensed by other hardware makers. With today’s announcement, it’s easy to see how in the not-too-distant future we may be surrounded by voice-activation in every aspect of our lives – in the home, at work, in cars, businesses, and public transportation. And, yet again, online sellers could be paving the way for new ways of doing business.
ShippingEasy said the integration of its tool with Alexa will reduce the time and labor required to fulfill orders, allowing online sellers and shippers to pick, pack, and ship orders without ever touching a keyboard.
The company cited a seller who participated in a beta test of the new feature, who called it a game changer. Alex Ahrens said his company, The Jungle Hook, is able to process significantly more orders in the same amount of time – and it provides him with a fast way to check on orders that are coming in while he’s on the go.
ShippingEasy CEO Katie May said, “Enabling company owners to ask business performance related questions from their smartphone wherever they are empowers them, and allows them to do what they do best – run a successful business. This first-of-its-kind integration in the ecommerce shipping industry truly allows hands-free shipping, and will change the way online businesses operate.”
The Alexa integration will be available to ShippingEasy’s tens of thousands of customers on October 9. Learn more at ShippingEasy.com/alexa, where you can see a video demonstrating how a warehouse worker uses Alexa in fulfilling orders.
